Does this sound family? Well, it kinda sounds like it is part of a good ole fashion children’s song that I learned when I was young. The only difference is that there’s nothing funny about this title. Some people think it’s just being sad or having the blues for a day or two, but I have to disagree. I’ve been putting up with it and trying to “handle” it for most of my life, and it is so much more . Sometimes I can fake it to make it for a short while, but since November and and even the beginning of this month it has been rough. I mean really bad.

The kind of depression that I’m talking about is the kind that totally takes over your life and sends your mind into the outer limits of the known universe. It makes you feel helpless. You don’t want to think. You don’t read books because they make your head hurt because of thinking too much. You try to get lost in TV shows and movies. You will do anything to take your mind off your life You don’t want to get out of bed to even go to the bathroom (but of course you have to). You want the whole world to just leave you alone and just go away. You have no energy to fight the world around you. You have lost interest in doing even the smallest things. You either sleep all the time or if you’re like me you hardly sleep at all. You curl up on the sofa if you make it out of the bed, and either eat all you can or hardly anything at all.. You go from one extreme to the other. Your emotions are all over the map. You feel totally our of control. You keep “falling” until you get to the bottom or want to commit suicide which is hitting the bottom with only one final outcome possible.

If you are really lucky, you have some friends that can tell when you are on the slippery slope of depression and will help pull you back from that edge. If not, here are some tricks to try before you hit the dirt bottom:

The first and foremost thing that you should do is get into a good therapy program with a good medication plan. This is the best way to break the depression cycle. I’m not saying that it will keep the depression away, but it will lower the number of times that you will have to combat the depression.

Changing your Physical activity and lifestyle. The more active you are the less depressed you will be. When you are inactive or not sleeping, your brain cells die, cognitive throughput slows down your brain creates false memories, you lose your filter to your brain, your right superior frontal cortex reduced in volume, and it doesn’t adequately regulate your feelings

Change your way of thinking. Most depressed people have negative thoughts most of the time. A lot of them come from abused or difficult lives. If you can learn to forgive and put behind your past, then you can change your thinking from negative to positive. Start by looking up positive thinking in the Bible. It will not be easy but if you start with just one verse at a time, before you know it you will be thinking more positively in no time.

Get in a routine. Depressed is the enemy to a meaningful life and days blend into each other. It strips away all the structure and framework in your life. You no longer want to go out with friends. In fact, you want nothing to do with anyone much less your friends. If you have a gentle routine that you can get back into, the depression will not be able to keep its hold on you.

Set goals. Depression sits heavy on your heart and you like nothing is going your way. You feel like you can’t accomplish anything. Of course, this does not help your self-image. By setting small “doable” goals that you can succeed at and you will start to feel better about yourself. As you start to feel better, upgrade the goals to challenging yourself.

Exercise. I know this doesn’t sound like something that anyone wants to do when you are depressed and to tell you truth it’s not. I’m not talking about going to the gym and work yourself out on heavyweights, but taking a walk about the apartment complex or block is not that much to ask. You will be surprised by the way that it will help you feel better.

Just by using one or two of these tricks can help you get out of the depression sooner. They have worked for me and I have 29 years experience dealing with Bipolar II-depression. It’s not easy, and I’m not telling you it is, but you can deal with it. My prayers go with you.

“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mins, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

Before you can transform your mind, you have to start every day to humble yourself before the Lord. To humble yourself, you have to first admit and then show your helplessness to follow God on your own, but willing to follow the teachings of Christ as well as acquire His character as your own. You labor in vain if you don’t receive inner power, all that is good, as well as love from God. You can’t love without receiving love from God. God is love and He gives His grace and love only to the humble.

James 4:6 NKJV

“But He gives more grace. Therefore He says:

‘ God resists the proud

But gives grace to humble’ “

God wants you to love and obey Him and also draw close to Him. When you do these things and keep yourselves open up to Him all the time, you can stand on and claim His love, power, and fulfillment.

When you start feeling like you are slipping far away God, you should drop down to your knees and start praying right then and there. First, you humble and then confess to God every sin that could be standing in your way to God. Search your Bible and then wait for the “golden nugget” that God wants you to learn from the “down time”. It might be greater empathy for others, more of God’s character, or even more of His love. Waiting for God/Holy Spirit’s unlimited potential and resurrection power living inside of you is the only way to endure the pain of this world and waiting for the “nugget” that God is wanting to give to you.

II Corinthians 10:5 NKJV

“casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,”

Now that you are waiting on God, you have to take you ideas, thoughts, imaginations, dreams, and beliefs captive to the obedience of Christ. All your words, actions and emotions come from somewhere inside you. They come from your mind and heart and you can wake each and every morning with the assurance that you have the power to control how you feel, what you say, and how you act during the entire day and night with God’s help. It is a constant adventure and daily war because the closer you are to God the more Satan doesn’t like it. No one is a victim!